Rod Serling Commentary on V-E Day Anniversary — WMRN Broadcast (May 6, 1948)

Machine transcript draft, pending human review. This audio was transcribed from the preserved May 6, 1948 Rod Serling recording using automated speech-to-text. The draft preserves timestamps and should be proofread against the original audio before citation as a final transcript.

Summary: The recording is a reflective VE Day anniversary commentary dated May 6, 1948. The speaker asks listeners to remember the meaning of May 6, the end of the European war, the cost of World War II, and the danger of forgetting peace while new conflicts and atomic-age fears were emerging.

Rod Serling VE Day Commentary - May 6, 1948

[00:00:16.050 - 00:00:18.740] Well, today is May 6th.

[00:00:18.740 - 00:00:21.470] That's right, the 6th of May.

[00:00:21.470 - 00:00:24.150] What does it mean to you?

[00:00:24.150 - 00:00:25.870] Is it a special day of some sort?

[00:00:25.870 - 00:00:27.270] Did you mark it down on your calendar

[00:00:27.270 - 00:00:29.870] as being a particular date with a particular meaning?

[00:00:31.110 - 00:00:35.660] Well, let's look at this day, this May 6th, 1948.

[00:00:35.660 - 00:00:38.420] It's been a warm, sunny spring day.

[00:00:38.420 - 00:00:41.860] The kind of spring day the whole world opens its eyes to.

[00:00:41.860 - 00:00:44.340] Stretches, shakes off its wintery stiffness,

[00:00:44.340 - 00:00:47.250] and sort of drinks in the sunshine,

[00:00:47.250 - 00:00:49.860] and the warmth, and the freshness.

[00:00:49.860 - 00:00:52.290] Time of awakening, the poets call it.

[00:00:52.290 - 00:00:53.960] Time of awakening.

[00:00:53.960 - 00:00:55.480] Yeah, that's what it is.

[00:00:55.480 - 00:00:58.640] That's what it should be, awakening.

[00:00:58.640 - 00:01:01.020] But too many of us aren't awake.

[00:01:01.020 - 00:01:02.740] We're still sleeping.

[00:01:02.740 - 00:01:04.700] We're snoring to the rhythm of lethargy

[00:01:04.700 - 00:01:07.470] and blindness and wishful thinking.

[00:01:07.470 - 00:01:08.790] That's why when somebody says,

[00:01:08.790 - 00:01:11.180] brightly, today's May 6th,

[00:01:11.180 - 00:01:14.220] we scratch our heads and we play May 6th.

[00:01:15.450 - 00:01:29.980] May 6th, it's familiar.

[00:01:29.980 - 00:01:33.460] But many of us remember May 6th now, don't we?

[00:01:33.460 - 00:01:36.500] Ask any ex-GI Joe from the 7th Infantry,

[00:01:36.500 - 00:01:39.180] or the 512th combat engineers,

[00:01:39.180 - 00:01:42.140] or one of the ex-screaming eagles at 101st Airborne.

[00:01:42.140 - 00:01:43.420] Yeah, ask any of the others

[00:01:43.420 - 00:01:46.140] who took that conducted tour through Europe,

[00:01:46.140 - 00:01:50.650] and found the reception was, well, far from pleasant.

[00:01:50.650 - 00:01:54.250] Or if you could,

[00:01:54.250 - 00:01:57.210] ask any one of the doe foots of the airmen

[00:01:57.210 - 00:01:59.210] who found that tour was a one-way affair

[00:01:59.210 - 00:02:01.380] with no passage home.

[00:02:01.380 - 00:02:03.620] They'd tell you what May 6th meant.

[00:02:03.620 - 00:02:05.930] Oh, yeah, they could tell you.

[00:02:05.930 - 00:02:08.460] They could tell you from where they are now.

[00:02:08.460 - 00:02:12.220] Casino, Anzio, Cologne, Sicily, Normandy,

[00:02:12.220 - 00:02:14.060] oh, a lot of places.

[00:02:14.060 - 00:02:16.240] Names on the map as of the later.

[00:02:16.240 - 00:02:18.120] Names on the map.

[00:02:18.120 - 00:02:20.500] They used to be marked with dots.

[00:02:20.500 - 00:02:46.780] Now they're crosses.

[00:02:46.780 - 00:02:49.740] May 6th, the anniversary of the ending

[00:02:49.740 - 00:02:52.940] of the European War, V.E. Day, remember?

[00:02:52.940 - 00:02:56.260] Sure, we hollered ourselves sick at it three years ago.

[00:02:56.260 - 00:02:59.570] Yeah, we hollered and danced and braced,

[00:02:59.570 - 00:03:01.650] and we went to church.

[00:03:01.650 - 00:03:03.810] We went to church to pray that the other half of the war

[00:03:03.810 - 00:03:05.690] went just the same way.

[00:03:05.690 - 00:03:06.930] The flag is in the Pacific.

[00:03:06.930 - 00:03:08.930] It didn't differ too much when the one just ended.

[00:03:08.930 - 00:03:12.820] It was a bit warmer, perhaps, a bit more spread out,

[00:03:12.820 - 00:03:15.380] but they had their crosses there too.

[00:03:15.380 - 00:03:17.180] A lot of crosses.

[00:03:17.180 - 00:03:21.760] Kwajalein, Manila, Lady Tarawa.

[00:03:21.760 - 00:03:23.600] But though at the time we tried to capture

[00:03:23.600 - 00:03:25.360] the thoughtfulness and the sobriety

[00:03:25.360 - 00:03:26.680] that should come with what we knew

[00:03:26.680 - 00:03:29.610] was only a half-finished job,

[00:03:29.610 - 00:03:31.410] we were still happy.

[00:03:31.410 - 00:03:34.010] That fresh, wholesome, tear-provoking happiness

[00:03:34.010 - 00:03:37.000] that comes from thanksgiving and relief.

[00:03:37.000 - 00:03:39.040] The feeling is a part of a heavy chain

[00:03:39.040 - 00:03:41.740] that had been unwrapped from around our throats

[00:03:41.740 - 00:03:52.770] and around our hearts.

[00:03:52.770 - 00:03:55.090] So today is the third anniversary of the ending

[00:03:55.090 - 00:03:59.310] of hostilities some 2,000 and 3,000 miles away.

[00:03:59.310 - 00:04:00.980] We ought to think about it.

[00:04:00.980 - 00:04:03.650] We really ought to think about it.

[00:04:03.650 - 00:04:05.530] About the places and the crosses

[00:04:05.530 - 00:04:08.010] and the 200-odd thousand one-way passages

[00:04:08.010 - 00:04:11.980] some American kids had who had a lot to live for

[00:04:11.980 - 00:04:15.020] but didn't, because they believed as we did

[00:04:15.020 - 00:04:18.830] that they had a lot to die for as well.

[00:04:18.830 - 00:04:22.260] Well, today's May 6th, and we're paying tribute

[00:04:22.260 - 00:04:25.340] to the aforementioned anniversary,

[00:04:25.340 - 00:04:27.580] but nobody seems to be dancing in the streets

[00:04:27.580 - 00:04:32.180] or yelling or making any unusual fuss about it,

[00:04:32.180 - 00:04:35.920] or maybe they are and we just can't hear the festivities.

[00:04:35.920 - 00:04:38.800] Maybe the atomic bomb plants are making too much noise

[00:04:38.800 - 00:04:41.320] as they work overtime all over the world.

[00:04:41.320 - 00:04:43.040] Or maybe it's the gunfire and the shelling

[00:04:43.040 - 00:04:45.440] from the Holy Land in Greece and Italy.

[00:04:45.440 - 00:04:47.640] More names on the map.

[00:04:47.640 - 00:04:49.920] Yeah, too much noise.

[00:04:49.920 - 00:04:52.030] Too many unhappy noises.

[00:04:52.030 - 00:04:54.030] No room for happiness and thanksgiving

[00:04:54.030 - 00:04:55.230] for the ending of an old war

[00:04:55.230 - 00:05:00.420] when so many people are thinking about a new one,

[00:05:00.420 - 00:05:02.220] but not us, right?

[00:05:02.220 - 00:05:03.740] Not us.

[00:05:03.740 - 00:05:05.700] We're keeping track of May 6th

[00:05:05.700 - 00:05:08.380] because they still mean something.

[00:05:08.380 - 00:05:10.960] They mean, thank God we won a war.

[00:05:10.960 - 00:05:13.780] They mean, bless the kids who want it for us.

[00:05:13.780 - 00:05:16.370] They mean, above all, let's thank.

[00:05:16.370 - 00:05:19.250] Let's think about results and meanings and purposes

[00:05:19.250 - 00:05:22.180] about peace, peace that we've got now

[00:05:22.180 - 00:05:25.030] and seem to be letting slip right by us.

[00:05:25.030 - 00:05:27.070] Let's keep May 6th in our minds

[00:05:27.070 - 00:05:30.980] like we do Christmas and July 4th and Thanksgiving.

[00:05:30.980 - 00:05:34.620] And maybe, maybe if we sweat and worry

[00:05:34.620 - 00:05:36.830] and think and hope,

[00:05:36.830 - 00:05:40.980] we won't have any more new V.E. days in the future.

[00:05:40.980 - 00:05:42.910] I'll go along on that.

[00:05:42.910 - 00:05:44.700] How about you?

[00:05:44.700 - 00:05:47.860] Rod Sterling in something he did for W.M.R.A.